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CA$ 30,516

pledged of CA$ 30,000 goal

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backers

The Heavy Gear Blitz! Utopia Armed Forces Plastic Miniatures Kickstarter will fund the plastic injection mold needed to make new high-quality multi-part plastic miniatures for the tabletop wargame. Dream Pod 9 needs your support and pledges to make this project possible. Our initial goal is to raise $30,000 CAD to cover the manufacturing cost of the mold and to give Backers at our basic Captain Reward Level ($70 CAD) an army of 36 plastic miniatures (Updated 1/31/18 for Final 72 Hours of Kickstarter) and a Utopia Patch (3"x3" size & iron-on backing). Higher reward levels add the new MAR-DK drone (resin model) and the large Gilgamesh Command Tank (resin model); see below for artwork and details. Further down this page are graphics of all the Add-Ons available for an extra pledge (including the full color printed HGB Quick Start Rulebook 2018 Edition, a $20 CAD Add-On with updated rules and Utopia section), followed by links to our free HGB Living and Quick Start Rulebook pdfs, Utopia background, and Heavy Gear history graphics.

To encourage and reward early support, we've set our reward levels so that the early Captain Reward Level Wave 1 or higher Backers (Veteran Captain at $90 CAD, Elite Captain at $155 CAD, Commander at $175 CAD, and Hero of Utopia at $270 CAD) will get their rewards shipped out in the first wave. Sign up early to lock in your shipping order and watch as stretch goals bolster your forces. Treat yourself to a New Army for the New Year!

Non-miniature reward levels include the Pilot Reward Level ($6 CAD, provides a Utopia patch plus access to any Add-On you select for an extra pledge) and the Cadet Reward Level ($10 CAD, provides a Utopia patch and worldwide mailing included, but no add-ons).

We also have a Retailer Reward Level ($270 CAD), to encourage Retailers to help in funding the project and reward them with 6 of the Utopia Captain Reward Level sets. Proof of brick & mortar retailer status is required to select this Reward Level. The final mass market retailer army box will be announced after all the Kickstarter Backer reward packages have shipped.

Please Note all prices in this Kickstarter are in Canadian Dollars ($CAD) as we are based in Canada, $1 CAD is worth about $0.77 USD with a 1.30 exchange rate. So the Captain Reward Level of $70 CAD is about $53.85 USD.

Pledge Calculator Excel File

Here is a link to our Pledge Calculator excel file with all the Reward Levels and all the Add-Ons available that you can download and use to easily calculate your pledge to enter in the Kickstarter.

Shipping

A fixed shipping cost of $17 CAD for Canadian Backers, $19 CAD for United States Backers, and $47 CAD for International Backers will be charged after the Kickstarter is finished and our pledge manager website is open. Please Do Not Add Shipping to your pledge as the Kickstarter Pledge Total. As we used the total to unlock stretch goals and all pledges received can not be applied to the shipping cost after the Kickstarter has ended. Two additional Kickstarters to make plastic miniatures for the Peace River (February) and NuCoal (March) core models will follow. Backers that support two or more of the individual Kickstarters will be able to have them all shipped together for the basic fixed shipping cost.

UK and EU Friendly.

For our UK and EU Backers we plan to do a consolidated shipping of all their Backers Reward Packages (reguardless of Wave) to the UK and then have them shipped from their by Royal Mail to the locations in the UK & Europe so you don't have to pay any VAT.

Extra Pledge Add-Ons

HGB Utopia Kickstarter Add-Ons For an Extra Pledge.

HGB Utopia Kickstarter 1st Kickstarter Add-Ons For an Extra Pledge.

Utopia 3D Model Images

Commando Armiger and N-KIDU 3d Model Larger Images.

Recce Armiger and N-KIDU 3d Model Larger Images.

Support Armiger and N-KIDU 3d Model Larger Images.

Gilgamesh 3d Model Images.

MAR-DK 3d Model Images.

Utopia Background & Vehicles

Utopia Background and Vehicles.

Heavy Gear History.

Miniature Scale and Size Comparison

Heavy Gear Blitz miniatures are 1/144 scale making our pewter infantry figures around 12mm tall. The Commando Armiger is 35 mm tall, Recce Armiger is 33 mm tall, Support Armiger is 27 mm tall, Commando Drone is 23 mm tall from base, Recce Drone is 20 mm tall and Support Drone is 20 mm tall. The MAR-DK drone resin model is 48 mm tall and the large Gilgamesh Command Tank resin model with track side modules added is 191 mm long by 128 mm wide by 62 mm tall. The Alpha Squad pewter Marshal and Constable Apes minis are 23 mm tall. All miniatures for the game are to scale with Gears ranging from 28mm to 48mm tall with a Hunter being 32 mm tall.

Utopia 3d Models Shown To Scale For Size Comparison.

What is Heavy Gear & the Heavy Gear Blitz Wargame

Heavy Gear is a science fiction universe, where humanity ventures out into space and finds habitable worlds, but no alien intelligent life to challenge or unify us. We start on Terra Nova, a far away planet settled by humanity in the 52nd century. More than three hundred years ago, in our timeline, a political crisis on Earth caused it to abandon its colonies and retreat into isolation. Since that fateful day, the former colonists have adapted to the characteristics of their new home planets and evolved into many distinct societies.
As our story opens in the early 62nd century, Terra Nova is recovering from the War of the Alliance, wherein they successfully repelled a surprise invasion attempt by a newly unified and now highly imperialist Earth. The Earth Colonial Expeditionary Force (CEF) with their GREL super-soldiers and Hovertanks faced off against the Terra Novan Gears (multi-ton humanoid fighting vehicles) and lost. Gears were original used for construction projects like the massive Maglev train lines that cross the deserts of Terra Nova. But following the abandonment of the colony by Earth the city-states of Terra Nova started banding together for protection and soon armed the Gears. Victory was short-lived, however: the power brokers of Terra Nova were restless once again. With the Confederated Northern City States (CNCS) controlling the northern hemisphere and Allied Southern Territories (AST) controlling the south. And the large Badlands equatorial region with its vast deserts split between Peace River (PR), the remnants of Earths failed invasion force at Port Arthur (PAK) and other smaller city-states. Peace would soon turn to war once again, with what came to be known as the Interpolar War, triggered by the assassination of Northern religious figure Thor Hutchison. War raged across the Badlands with fleets of Landships and thousands of Gear, other vehicles and infantry. And ending suddenly with the tragic destruction of the main Peace River city-state. Now several cycles later (Terra Novan years) Peace River has rebuilt, and a unified Terra Novan force call Black Talon was established and sent out to keep an eye on Earth and find out whats happened to the other colonies. The Terra Novans are still distrustful of one another and small skirmishes still occur between their different factions, but they are united when faced with Earth or any who threaten their home.

Which brings us to the present story arc, The War for Terra Nova, Earth has returned with new toys and allies. Earth with its new Battle Frames (their answer to the Gear), FLAILS, and massive Overlord Class Hovertanks and Allies: Caprice with their Combat Mounts and Utopia with their Armigers, N-KIDU & MAR-DK Drones, and Gilgamesh Command Tanks. Heavy Gear Blitz is the fast and furious combine arms Tabletop Wargame where you pick a faction and build your army of: Gears, Striders, Tanks, and Infantry for the various Terra Novan factions. Or Hovertanks, GRELs, Battle Frames, FLAILS for the CEF, Combat Mounts & Infantry for Caprice and Armigers, Drones, and Tanks for Utopia. All the HGB miniatures are to scale, you assemble and paint them and then fight battles on a tabletop with various terrain for cover. Try different tactics and roll your d6 dice to see the battle outcome.

Utopia Special Rules & Force Construction Videos

The first video below focuses on the Utopia Special Rules when making a Generic Utopia Force (Army). Sorry if the video is a bit shaky at spots it was made with a handheld iPhone in one take and no editing. Also a quick errata the HGB Living Rulebook page mentioned at the end of the video is wrong, it should be page 204. After that the second video is on the basics of Heavy Gear Blitz Army (Force) Construction. Using the miniatures (Armigers & N-KIDU Drones) from the Utopia Captain Reward Level and a few pages printed out from our free to download HGB Living Rulebook ebook. Minis shown in the video are the original Utopia pewter minis all painted up on one of our small convention demo tabletops. It also references the Gear Grinder website with January 2018 update used to make fast datacard sheets for the two combat groups using the 18 minis and print them out for game play. Plus options for extra combats groups for the Gilgamesh or Alpha Squad with MAR-DK drone as support unit.

After that we have the 3 pages used in our Special Rules video and a link to a pdf of the Utopia Section from our HGB Living Rulebook below with all the Utopia army options. We also have links below to our free HGB Living Rulebook ebook (with all the rules and factions with complete model lists) and HGB Quick Start Rulebook ebooks (with all the rules, but only the North, South, CEF, and Caprice factions and models from the 1st HGB Kickstarter) to download and check out.

Utopia Force Special Rules Page 1.

Utopia Force Special Rules Page 2.

More Utopia Unit Options.

Utopia Living Rulebook Section PDF Download with Sample Force

Below is a link to download a PDF of the Utopia Section from the Heavy Gear Blitz Living Rulebook with Sample 100 to 160 TV Force page added at the end for the Utopia Kickstarter Models.

Here is a Heavy Gear Blitz game play video that was made at Gen Con 2016 with our HGB line developer, David McLeod, running a demo game.

Gear Grinder Website

Our Gear Grinder website (designed and maintained by long time supporter Samuli Aura) can make easy to print combat group datacard sheets for your force, once designed. You can select your faction and rules edition and then the models in your combat group and arrange their order so that the primary units models are first and support units at the end. Then click the view datacards link to open a new page with the datacards that you can then print, see the image below for a sample Combat Group of Strike (Primary Unit) of 2 Commando Armigers and 4 N-KIDU Drones and Fire Support (Support Unit) of 1 Support Armiger and 2 N-KIDU Drones. Click the image below to visit Gear Grinder site.

Who is Dream Pod 9: History, Staff, & Contributors

Dream Pod 9 was founded back in 1995 to publish the Heavy Gear Roleplaying and Tactical Game, along with numerous other game lines, including Jovian Chronicles, Gear Krieg, Tribe 8, & Core Command. Soon after its release Heavy Gear was licensed to computer game giant Activision, who produced two computer games based on the franchise. It was also licensed to Sony Pictures Family Entertainment who produced a 40 episode television series for kids, back in 2001. Heavy Gear Blitz became the dedicated tabletop wargame version of Heavy Gear in 2008. DP9 now manufactures a complete line of 1/144 scale pewter and resin miniatures for the game. Our first successful Kickstarter at the end of 2014 was to make plastic miniatures for the North, South, CEF, and Caprice factions core models of Heavy Gear Blitz. The first Kickstarter was learning experience for us and everything took a bit longer that we though it would, with backer reward packages shipping out in the summer and fall of 2016. In early 2017 the Heavy Gear Assault eSports computer game was released on by Stompy Bot Productions via Steam. Our second Kickstarter was launched in Spring of 2017, this time to make new resin spaceships for our Jovian Wars tabletop wargame, with backer reward packages shipping out in Fall. Now in early 2018 we are running 3 new Kickstarter campaigns for more plastic miniatures for Heavy Gear Blitz with Utopia in January, Peace River in late February, and NuCoal in late March.

Dream Pod 9 has a small in-house staff based in Montreal, Canada, were everyone does several jobs. With Robert Dubois, the President of DP9, who handles all the company administration, sales, web updates, Kickstarter planning and follow thru. Plus takes care of our weekly shipping via US Post, shipping paperwork, customs clearance, & packing when needed. Our Heavy Gear Blitz line developer is David McLeod, he handles all the rules design and playtesting, plus he is also our Production Manager, casting our pewter miniatures, making the vulcanized rubber production molds, and packing. Outside of the office, but still here in Montreal, is Alain Gadbois, with his company called Fusion Models, that handles all the resin casting and silicon mold making for DP9. Also in Montreal is our main sculptor, Philippe F. LeClerc, you can see his latest work, the Chibi N-KIDU Drone resin model that is available in the Add-Ons. Our 3d modelling team includes Tony Baltera in the USA, Tony's latest work includes the MAR-DK drone and Gilgamesh Command Tank. And finally we have Andrey and Lukasz our 3d Solidworks modelers based in Europe, they make all the 3d models used in the creations of the plastic injection molds.

Dream Pod 9 Staff Photos.

Dream Pod 9 also wants to thank, our long time collaborators, Wunji Lau for helping us produce the Kickstarter video and graphic designer Greg Perkins for the great reward level and other Kickstarter graphics and Samuli Aura for his designing and maintaining the Gear Grinder website.

Join us on Facebook

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Photos of Utopia Paint Pewter Minis with FX!

We have not done rapid prototypes of the new 3d models yet, so can't show them all painted up. But we do have lots of photos of the original Utopia pewter minis all nicely painted. Below are a few Utopia army and squad photos from previously released army boxes and books. Greg had fun at the time adding FX to the photos in Photoshop (erasing flight bases, adding sensor lighting, thrust exhaust, and weapons fire), Enjoy!

Photos of Painted Utopia Pewter Minis with FX!

Risks and challenges

Non-Completion of project: As a company with over twenty years experience in completing game development projects and with two successful fulfilled Kickstarter campaigns our be the biggest risks to this project fall under the category of act of God. Such as if something happens to our molds or the production facilities themselves are damaged by a natural disaster. We have insurance to cover losses and our in-house metal /resin production capacity means that in case of disaster we do have the capacity to produce replacement parts ourselves in metal or resin in order to meet our deadlines.

These kind of unplanned delays do happen and any of them would delay the fulfillment of our backer rewards. We will be communicating regularly and openly about any delays so that you, our backers, are fully aware of any reasons for delays. Our commitment is to get you a great product and if delays happen in order to deliver on that promise then the expected delivery date will be re-evaluated.

Finally there is a chance that we cannot provide a model that has been included in the Kickstarter due to problems with the molding process or simply not enough interest in that figure as an add-on sale. If that is the case then we will provide backers with the opportunity to use some credit to choose from the other models produced. Adjustments to model designs always have to be made to meet casting requirements but we have an excellent team in place to address and adjust to the challenges we face.

We are keeping this Kickstarter limited in scope considering the vast selection of armies and models available in Heavy Gear Blitz. We want to ensure a speedy fulfillment of backer rewards and when this project is completed we will be looking to future crowdfunding to fund additional projects.

We have an excellent team of 3d modelers, sculptors, rules designer, and in-house staff committed to completing this project. This in addition to our experience and dedication to the universe of Heavy Gear as a powerful vision of humanity’s future will guide us in this project.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 90 or more
About $68

Veteran Captain Level Wave 1

Includes all the rewards of the Captain Level plus adds 1x MAR-DK drone (resin model). Plus any unlocked stretch goal add-ons for the army. Plus any additional Add-Ons selected and pledged for. Fixed shipping cost based on location to be charged after the campaign ends.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 155 or more
About $117

Elite Captain Level Wave 1

Includes all the rewards of the Captain Level plus adds 1x Gilgamesh Command Tank (resin model). Plus any unlocked stretch goal add-ons for the army. Plus any additional Add-Ons selected and pledged for. Fixed shipping cost based on location to be charged after the campaign ends.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 175 or more
About $132

Commander Level Wave 1

Includes all the rewards of the Captain Level plus adds 1x MAR-DK drone (resin model) and 1x Gilgamesh Command Tank (resin model). Plus any unlocked stretch goal add-ons for the army. Plus any additional Add-Ons selected and pledged for. Fixed shipping cost based on location to be charged after the campaign ends.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 270 or more
About $204

Retailer Level

Proof of brick & mortar retailer status is required to select this reward level. Includes 6x Captain Reward Level Backer Package and any unlocked stretch goal add-ons for the army. Plus any additional Add-Ons selected and pledged for. Fixed shipping cost based on location to be charged after the campaign ends.